Suggested Activities

Suggested Units of Study | Suggested Activities | Suggested Resources

Activity
Example

Create a grab bag of items relating
to the events of the Civil Rights Movement

Shoes-representing the lives and stories of the marchers
Research the names and contributions made by ordinary people who played significant roles in the movement
Teacher provides names

Read a variety of sources:
personal accounts,
newspaper articles,
historical narratives and analyses, etc.

Birmingham News articles from the 50s to mid 60s
Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Ray Arsenault

Interpret primary documents in a DBQ format

Photographs, letters from and to law enforcement agencies, political cartoons

Read poems which give the perspective of
the ordinary man
Girl Held Without Bail by Margaret Walker
I Was Born at the Wrong Time by Angela Shelf Medearis

Using email, phone, or face-to-face contact
interview someone who contributed to the movement

Contact the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for possible names

Research and listen to
the music used of the time

Spirituals, church/gospel hymns: We Shall Not Be Moved; Oh, Freedom
Popular: This Is My Country by the Impressions; Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke

Watch archival footage of Civil Rights events
Teaching Tolerence CDs